


A Night to Remember

by liamthebastard



Series: That One Human AU [7]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Feels, Fights, M/M, Rated teen for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-23
Updated: 2013-03-06
Packaged: 2017-12-03 07:23:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/695722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liamthebastard/pseuds/liamthebastard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are fights, and then there are all out <em>wars</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, just for the record: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DRINK AND DRIVE. IT IS DANGEROUS TO YOU AND TO EVERYONE ELSE.  
> Seriously. Just don't do it.

“Dean, are you insane? You could’ve died this time!” Cas shouted as Dean shucked his jacket and threw it over the back of the couch. He closed the door as Dean entered the living room. Cas refused to let it go, stepping around Dean and getting right into his space.

“I didn’t though, did I? So what’s the problem?” Dean growled, trying to walk away. Cas caught him by the shoulder, spun him back to face him, and started in again.

“You get off on it, don’t you? Nearly dying, putting me and Sammy through _hell_. Me, I get, but I would think you’d at least think of Sammy. For God’s sake, he can’t lose you and you know it!” Cas retaliated, voice getting more and more uneven. 

“Don’t you dare bring my brother into this, Castiel! This is about you, and your need for control. Well news flash, _you can’t control me._ If I want to ride my bike, dammit, I’m gonna ride my bike!” Dean yelled back, Cas finally getting under his skin. 

“God, Dean, this is not about control! I don’t want to control you, I just want you safe! Is that so much to ask, that you at least _pretend_ to give a damn about your own life?” Castiel’s face was wrecked, his eyes filling with tears that he blinked rapidly away. Dean was too pissed off to care. He ached all over and he was furious, his blood boiling. 

“Like hell it’s not about control! You’ve been freaking out ever since I bought that bike, and now you can’t stand the idea that I might be out of your sight for more than an hour,” Dean spat, flopping on the couch in a furious heap. 

“What I can’t stand is the idea of someone scraping you off the pavement and then calling me saying it was too late!” Cas was crumpling in on himself, but now he was going and there was no stopping the words as they crashed out on a tidal wave. “I’m not sticking around and watching as you drink and drive yourself to death. I’m done here.”

“Fine! Go then, and find someone else to smother!” Dean stood up and screamed it at Cas, and then at the front door as it swung shut. And if later that night, he drank so much and yelled so loud that Sammy had to pick him up from the police station the next morning, Cas certainly was never going to find out. 

Because by the time a thoroughly annoyed moose dropped off Dean at home, Cas’s half of the bedroom was cleared out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you give a moose an agnst-ridden stubborn-ass brother... he'll give the brother freaking good advice.

“Dean, I don’t understand why you won’t just talk to him,” Sammy commented, stepping to the kitchen to grab a beer. 

“Ha, no, you’re underage, bitch,” Dean said, snatching the beer from Sammy’s Gigantor hands and kicking the fridge shut. 

“So are you, jerk,” Sammy responded, taking the bottle back. “But seriously, Dean. Cas is a mess. At least _talk_ to the guy.” Dean pointedly avoided looking at his brother, knowing that Sammy was turning up the puppy dog eyes, which Dean hadn’t managed to resist yet, and there was no way in hell Dean was gonna talk to his ex-boyfriend, not after that fight. 

Dean ran a hand through his hair, heaving a sigh. “I- I just can’t, okay, Sammy? Leave it,” Dean said flatly. There were some things a guy just didn’t want to discuss with his baby brother, and the recent breakup with the love of his life is one of them.

Because Cas was. The love of Dean’s life, that is. There’d never been anyone else. Sure, there’d been girls, but from the moment Cas had first kissed him, he’d been a goner. For four years it’d been Dean-and-Cas, never apart but always together. Gabe had teased them mercilessly at first, and of course Zachariah and Michael had thrown a hissy over their baby brother’s sexuality, but overall, things had gone okay with their families. Sammy had nearly wet himself laughing, and Bobby had just called them idjits. Chuck hadn’t given a damn, he was just happy they were happy. 

Now it was just Dean and his own idiocy dicking things up between them. And his own pride holding him back. 

“I don’t see why not,” Sammy said, popping the cap off a beer he’d snuck while Dean was lost in thought and taking a swig. 

“I thought I said no to those,” Dean commented. Sammy only smirked at him before going all Zen Master again. 

“Dean. Cas loves you, you know that. And you love him. So why the hell are you playing this game?” Sammy asked. 

“It’s not a game, Sammy. It’s… It’s just that we… I dunno. It’s complicated, okay, Sam?” Dean snapped. He just wanted to close the subject, drink a bit, and then go for a drive. 

“I don’t get it. He loves you, you love him, what’s complicated? I figure, if you love somebody, it doesn’t matter what you do or how much you fuck up, you’re there for each other.” Sammy shrugged, standing up, downing the last of his beer, and leaving the apartment. 

Dean groaned. Leave it to Sasquatch to make him see sense. He flipped open his phone to text Cas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God I love Sammy. So fucking much.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean sends some texts and gets some unwanted advice.

_Cas. We need to talk. Meet me at the Roadhouse at seven. –Dean_

Signing it was a little stupid; Cas had his number, and who else called him Cas? Well, Sammy, but Sammy didn’t text if he could help it. Still, part of Dean wanted to remind Cas of who he was. Not the jackass that’d screamed at him earlier, but the guy Cas had somehow, miraculously, fallen in love with. 

His phone buzzed and his heart leapt as he opened the reply.

_Give me one good reason why I should._

His heart dropped. Of course Cas wouldn’t want to see him, after what he’d said. But dammit, Dean wasn’t giving up this easily! He needed to see Cas, to talk to him, to apologize. But not over text. If he was going to beg forgiveness, he was going to be man enough to do it to Cas’s face.

_I sold the motorcycle._

He had. The moment his massive hangover was manageable, Dean had gone down to the dealership with Sammy in tow and sold it off cheap. It was nice, but having it made Cas worry, so it wasn’t worth it. 

_The bike wasn’t the problem._

Okay, he’d known that. It was the drinking, always the alcohol, that really bugged Cas. But they could work on that, he could get better, he knew he could. Cas just needed to listen to him, just enough so that Dean could explain.

_I know. Just meet me. Please._

Dean stared at his phone, waiting anxiously for the next message.

_Fine._

Thank God. Dean sighed in relief, settling back into the couch. He had a few hours before they’d be meeting, just enough time to clean himself up and figure out how exactly he was going to make things right between them.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. “Come on in,” Dean shouted. There were only a handful of people who could be visiting him, almost everyone he knew worked during the day.

“Dean-o,” Gabriel said with false cheeriness. Dean groaned. Of course it was Gabe. Because there was no other possible way his day could get worse. A visit from his boyfriend’s psychotic older brother was exactly what he needed. 

“Hello, Gabe. What do you want?” Dean growled, not bothering to play nice, as Cas never did anymore. It just wasn’t worth it, Gabe would smirk and tease no matter how kind or unkind you were to him. 

Gabe produced a lollipop from his pocket, unwrapping it and sucking for a moment before speaking. 

“You fucked up,” Gabriel pointed out, gesturing accusingly with the sucker. Dean only nodded. “I believe I told you once that if you hurt my baby brother, I’d break you.”

Dean frowned. He could probably hold Gabe off in a fight, but he wouldn’t escape unscathed, and something told him turning up to his meeting with Cas sporting a black eye courtesy of the man’s brother wouldn’t set a good tone for the evening.

“But you seem pretty broken already,” Gabriel stated, giving Dean a cursory glance, “So I’ll spare you. Just… fix it.” He headed back to the door, Dean hadn’t even gotten up off the couch yet but already he was anxious to see the man go. Gabe paused at the door, one hand on the doorframe. “He’s better with you, Dean. And you’re better with him. Don’t let him walk away from you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was meant to be the last chapter. Then Gabe decided he wasn't getting enough attention (jealous of Sam I suppose) and promptly crashed my ending. One more chapter to this I think.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cas is not nervous, on edge, or any other word that could mean anxiety. He was simply... invested.

Cas was not anxious. He wasn’t nervous. He was only drumming his fingers on the table for something to do, _not_ because he was worried. He knew he was in the right here, and knew there was no other choice. He wasn’t strong enough to ignore the path Dean was going down. Dean’s choices were going to kill him, and Cas couldn’t support that.

So, no, he wasn’t at all on edge. He’d just shown up at the Roadhouse a half hour early because he’d gotten hungry. And he hadn’t ordered, not because it felt wrong to order food for just himself and not Dean, but because he’d lost his appetite. And if Jo and Ms. Harvelle –even though she’d retired years ago to run the restaurant, Cas still hadn’t broken the habit of addressing her as his teacher– shot him confused glances now and then, it was probably because he wasn’t wearing his standard trench coat and tie. Not because he was a lacking a freckled man by his side.

And since he wasn’t nervous, his heart did _not_ skip a beat when Dean came it at a quarter to seven. If it did start beating faster, which it didn’t, it was only because it was warm in the restaurant. Suddenly warm, in fact. Sweltering, even.

Dean spotted him, his face lighting up before falling and setting into his classic I’m-Not-Hurting face. That alone was enough to make Cas regret ever hurting him. Dean hadn’t worn that face since Bobby’s funeral. Dean made his way over to their table, receiving irritated glances from Jo and sympathetic looks from Ms. Harvelle. He sat across from Cas, and the distance had never seemed so vast. 

“You ordered yet?” Dean asked quietly, shifting in discomfort. Cas shook his head. He was still trying to find the anger he’d felt earlier that day when Dean had texted him, but it was proving difficult. Dean nodded in acknowledgement before waving Jo over to take their order.

“Two double cheeseburgers, one with everything on it, one without pickles, and two milkshakes, a strawberry and a chocolate,” Dean ordered, their usual order falling off his tongue like second nature. He didn’t even need to look to Cas to confirm it. 

Jo nodded, eyeing them both with suspicion, as if she knew something was off between them, before she wandered off towards the kitchen. They sat in silence for a time, Cas not trusting himself to speak, and Dean seemingly lost in his own head.

“Castiel…” Cas glanced up when Dean used his full name. He only called him Castiel when he was scared, usually of losing Cas. It made Cas want to tell Dean to forget everything they’d fought about and to just move on, but he knew they couldn’t do that or it would just happen again, and worse than before. 

“I- I’m so sorry. I just… I don’t know. There’s no excuse, but I’m so sorry. I fucked up,” Dean said quickly. “I know you’re mad, and you have every right to be, but Castiel, I can’t do this, I can’t get better, without you.”

“Get better?” Cas asked, his brow furrowing in confusion. What on Earth was Dean talking about? Was he sick?

“I’m gonna stop drinking, Cas. Pretty pathetic, alcoholic before I can even legally drink, but I’m stopping now,” Dean said earnestly. He had a hand laying flat on the table as he leaned forward, eyes intensely boring into Cas’s. Without thinking, Cas reached out and grabbed Dean’s hand, holding it tight while Dean spoke.

“I need you to help me, Cas. I need you,” Dean finished, lowering his eyes. Cas could tell Dean hated having to bare himself like this, and it made his heart hurt that he was willing to do this, to ignore his pride, to fix things with Cas. To fix _them_.

Cas lifted their joined hands, pressing his lips gently to the inside Dean’s wrist. “This isn’t going to be easy, Dean,” Cas said against the tender skin. Dean gave a shaky exhale.

“I know. But I want to try,” Dean answered. Cas nodded quickly.

“Okay. We’re going to try,” Cas said, already resolving in his mind that he was going to make this work, no matter what. Dean wanted to do better, so Cas was going to do better too. 

Dean smiled, a sweet, sad smile. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, Jo popped up and placed their food in front of them. 

“You two sorted everything out?” Jo demanded. “Good.” She nodded briskly, glaring teasingly at both of them before retreating back to speak with Ms. Harvelle. 

Cas took a fortifying sip of his milkshake before looking Dean in the eye. “I’m sorry too, you know. For not trusting you.” Dean started to protest, but Cas cut him off. “No, you don’t get to take all the blame, Dean. We both screwed up, we’re both going to do better.”

Dean must’ve recognized Cas’s tone of voice as the one that wasn’t going to budge, because he nodded and took a bite of his burger. Cas followed suit, and they fell back into the easy silence of a meal shared with the one they cared about. 

“Dean,” Cas asked a moment later. “What did you do with the money from the bike?”

Dean only blushed and then grinned mischievously. “You’ll see.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's that ending. Anyone want to guess what Dean bought?
> 
> You won't find out for a bit yet, I'm thinking I want to do a piece about Dean's drinking. How it started, how it got bad, and how it ended.

**Author's Note:**

> Well that one hurt. Everyone, you can thank my dear Brenna for requesting some post Just a Kiss Destiel.


End file.
